1966 Velocette Thruxton Café Racer At Auction | Current Museum Piece

1966 Velocette Thruxton Café Racer No Reserve Auction

For café racer enthusiasts looking to pick up an authentic piece of history, H&H Classics will be auctioning a 1966 Velocette Thruxton at the Donington Park Auction on July 28, 2016. “It is super rare to find a bike in this condition, which is not even on the Velocette Owners Club register,” according to Mark Bryan, Head of Motorcycles at H&H Classics. “This motorcycle is a very real and rare discovery.”

When it was new, the 1966 Velocette Thruxton was a coveted café racer straight from the factory. Based on the highly successful Velocette Venom, the Thruxton had a better flowing cylinder head with larger valves and a downdraft intake track. Good for over 40 horsepower from the big air-cooled 500cc OHV pushrod thumper—perfectly square at 86mm x 86mm—the Thruxton used a close-ratio four-speed gearbox to great success. Maximum power came at 6200 rpm.

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With Velocette Thruxtons going 1-2 in the first running of the Production TT at the 1967 Isle of Man meeting, the bike established its competition bona fides. An earlier win in a 500-mile endurance race proved that the Velocette Thruxton was both a competitive racer and a reliable machine.

Suspension on the 1966 Velocette Thruxton comes from traditional forks with damping in both directions (not a given at the time), as well as twin damped shocks with adjustable top mounting points. Period-appropriate 19-inch wheels are used at both ends of the 390-pound (dry) Thruxton, and the top speed was 110 mph. Twin leading shoe drums slowed the front wheel, with a single leading shoe drum in the back.

Currently on display a the National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, England, the 1966 Velocette Thruxton is being auctioned with no reserve, and an expectation of a selling price of £12,000 (about $16,000) or less. Hagerty values a concours 1966 Velocette Thruxton at $30,00, and a fair condition example at $15,000. Just over 1100 examples were built by Velocette.

With 45 years of riding experience, Don Williams is a fan of all kinds of motorcycles. He's enjoys sport bikes, cruisers, dirt bikes, touring bikes, adventure bikes, dual sport bikes, and rideable customs. Ask him what his favorite bike is and he will tell you, "Whatever bike I'm on."

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